CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH

by B. J Daniels

  “But it made Mama cry,” the younger Mary said.

  “Tears of joy,” Dana hurriedly added, and smoothed a hand over Mary’s dark hair so like her mother’s. “Want to join in the fun?”

  “Thanks, but I need to find my father. You haven’t seen him, by any chance, have you?”

  Dana shook her head. “I did hear that he checked himself out of the hospital. I’m sure he’s fine.”

  Tag wasn’t so sure about that. “You haven’t heard from Angus, have you?”

  “Grandpa is away on business,” Hank said, making his mother smile.

  “I thought I’d check his favorite bar....” He could see that Dana wasn’t going to be of any help. Because she didn’t understand her father any better than he did his, she’d taken a “whatever” attitude. He wished he could.

  * * *

  ACE LOOKED UP when Lily walked into the bar. “What’s wrong?”

  Where did she begin? “Someone ran Tag off the road last night on the way to my place. He could have been killed. He played it down, but I think it has something to do with the thumb drive he found.”

  “Tag?” Her brother grinned. “On the way to your place? I thought there was a rosy glow to your cheeks.”

  If he only knew. “That’s all you got out of what I just told you?” She shook her head. “Gerald showed up at my place last night.”

  That got his attention and wiped away Ace’s cat-who-ate-the-canary grin—just as she knew it would. “What did that bastard want?”

  “I’m pretty sure he wants me back.”

  “What?” Ace demanded. “I hope you told him where he could stick—”

  “Tag interrupted whatever Gerald was going to say. I’m on my way to meet Gerald now.”

  “You’re actually thinking of going back to him.”

  Her brother had a way of seeing through her that annoyed Lily to no end. “Gerald and I have—”

  “So help me, if you take that lily-livered son of a b—”

  “It’s my life, Ace.”

  He shook his head. “Exactly. You want to spend it with a stiff shirt like Gerald? Or a man like Tag Cardwell?”

  She wanted to point out that neither Tag nor any other man like him had asked, but changed the subject. “Did you hear what I said about someone running Tag off the road last night?”

  Ace nodded. “Does he think it was an accident?”

  “He pretended it was.”

  Her brother rubbed his jaw. “Teresa hasn’t turned up yet, and with Mia murdered... I just don’t understand it. This is usually such a safe place.”

  She glanced at her watch.

  “Don’t do it, Lily.”

  She looked at her brother, confused for a moment.

  “I know you. You’re going to end up feeling guilty for not taking him back—after he deserted you on your wedding day.” He shook his head again. “Why aren’t you mad? You should be spitting nails. He doesn’t deserve you.”

  She nodded, thinking Tag had pretty much said the same thing. “I have to go. Are you opening the bar tonight?”

  “Got to. If Teresa isn’t back, I’m going to need you to work.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be here.”

  “Lily?”

  She had started to leave, but now she turned back to look at her brother. Even frowning, he was drop-dead gorgeous. Why hadn’t some woman snatched him up? Or was he like her? Always playing it safe, afraid to really let go and fall for someone who made him see fireworks on a freezing winter night just before Christmas.

  Ace shook head as if changing his mind about whatever he had been going to say. “Just be careful, okay?”

  She had to smile. Too bad he hadn’t been around last night to warn her. It was a little too late now. “Always levelheaded. That’s me. And, Ace, don’t mention the thumb drive to anyone, okay?”

  Chapter Nine

  It had been weeks in this prison and Camilla was growing all the more impatient. She was wondering what she was going to have to do to make Edna’s acquaintance, when one of the woman’s minions brought her a note.

  She had to think outside the box to decipher the misspelled words, but then again not everyone in prison had a master’s degree. Hers was in psychology. Basically, a con man’s dream curriculum. No wonder she was so good at reading people.

  Except for Hud Savage. You certainly read him wrong, didn’t you, Miss Smarty-Pants?

  Her mother’s voice. She ground her teeth. That “misstep” had cost her dearly. Which was why retribution had such a nice ring to it. You know retribution, don’t you, Mother?

  The note from Edna wasn’t a request, but a command appearance, making her think about telling the inmate standing in front of her what she could do with her missive. The woman, a skinny former addict with a tattoo of a rattlesnake around her right wrist, was known as Snakebite. The nickname probably had more to do with her disposition, though, than the tattoo.

  Feeling in a generous mood and needing to get her plan moving, she merely smiled and said, “Okay.”

  “Now, bitch.”

  Camilla considered kicking the woman’s butt, convinced she could take her.

  Snakebite had the good sense to take a step back as Camilla got to her feet.

  Edna was waiting for them in the craft area of the prison. A kind-looking woman with a huge bosom and small delicate hands, she looked as if she should be in a kitchen baking chocolate-chip cookies for her grandkids. Which could explain her nickname, Grams.

  “I heard you’ve been asking around about me,” Grams said, and motioned to the chair across the small table from her. Snakebite took a position next to the wall along with another of Edna’s “girls,” a large woman called Moose.

  “I heard you were the kind of woman who got things done.”

  Grams lifted an eyebrow.

  Camilla leaned in closer. “I didn’t get a chance to tidy up before I got sent here.”

  Grams smiled. “So you’re a neat freak?”

  She laughed and leaned back. “I guess I am.”

  “It isn’t cheap cleaning up messes.”

  Camilla smiled. She had money stashed around the country under a dozen different names and she had ways to get to it. “I didn’t think it would be.”

  “How do I know I can trust you?” Grams asked.

  “The same way I know I can trust you. Otherwise how would either of us be able to sleep at night?”

  The older woman laughed again and slid a pen and paper across the table.

  Camilla wrote “Marshal Hud Savage” on the slip of paper and slid it back across along with the pen.

  Grams raised a brow again.

  “Is there a problem?” Camilla asked.

  “Not a problem exactly. I’m just curious. Is this personal or business?”

  “I wouldn’t think you would care. It’s personal,” Camilla said, remembering the way Hud had rebuked her. “It’s very personal.”

  Grams shrugged and tucked the piece of paper into her bra. “I’ll get back to you.”

  “How long before it’s done?”

  “Patience,” she said as she pushed herself to her feet. “Time is relative in here. But I think you’ll be pleased.” With that, Grams padded off, her “girls” behind her.

  Camilla picked up a lump of clay from a tub left on the table and began twisting it in her hands. First Hud. Then she would take care of the rest of his precious family. As Grams said, she had nothing but time.

  * * *

  WHEN GERALD OPENED his motel room door, Lily took a step back.

  “Don’t look so surprised to see me,” he said irritably. “You act as if you expected me to leave town before you arrived.”

  When he’d called, he’d sounded
...odd. Hurt, no doubt because she hadn’t fallen into his arms instantly. Hadn’t forgiven him without hesitation. That she’d been more concerned with Tag than him last night.

  “Truthfully, Gerald, I don’t know what to expect from you,” she said as he moved aside so she could step in out of the cold. She took in the room. Gerald had always been excessively neat. The bed was made, his suitcase perfectly packed and open on the luggage rack by the wall.

  “I told you I needed to talk to you,” he said behind her, a slight whine in his voice.

  She turned to look at him. “But you didn’t say why.”

  “I didn’t get a chance before your...friend showed up. Lily, I hate to see you get involved with someone like him.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “That cowboy. What could you possibly have in common with him?”

  If he only knew. “That’s none of your business.”

  Gerald let out a snort. “You can’t be falling for a man like that.”

  She started to deny that she was falling for Tag but stopped herself. “I can fall for anyone I want to.”

  “Lily,” he said impatiently.

  “Gerald,” she said, matching his tone.

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Gerald, just tell me what it is you want.”

  He let out a long sigh. “I had hoped we could sit down and discuss this reasonably like intelligent adults, but if you insist...” He met her gaze. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have. Is that all?”

  “No,” he snapped. “I told you about my little sister who lives in California.”

  Lily frowned. “She works for a bank.”

  “An investment company,” he said, and looked away. “She got into some trouble. I had to...help her.” His gaze met hers. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but I really had no choice. She’s my little sister. That’s why I took the job in California, why I’ve done everything that I have.”

  “You had a choice, Gerald. You could have told me about your sister, you could have told me you didn’t want to get married before the wedding. Don’t tell me you didn’t have a choice.”

  “You are making this very difficult, Lily.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Gerald.” He usually didn’t get sarcasm, but she had laid it on so thick, even he got it.

  He had the decency to look chastised. “I’m sure it was also difficult for you.”

  “Difficult, Gerald? You mean when I had to explain to our friends and family why you left me standing at the altar when I didn’t have the slightest idea?” she demanded, surprised at her anger. Even more surprised that she was letting it out. Gerald had always felt such a show of emotions distasteful at best. In her, he’d seen any emotional display as a sign of immaturity. Since he was eleven years her senior, she’d locked up all her emotions so as not to seem childish.

  But now she thought of Tag and her brother, both filled with righteous indignation over what Gerald had done to her and demanding to know why she wasn’t furious. Because she had every right. Just as she had every right to let her anger come out now.

  “I apologized for that,” Gerald said evenly.

  “Six months later,” she pointed out. “Not that I have any more idea now than I did then why you would do such a rude, disrespectful, embarrassing, ob—”

  “I couldn’t go through with it right then. My sister needed me and I...I panicked, all right?”

  She raised a brow. “You panicked?”

  “You have to know how hard this is to admit. I found myself in a position where I had to make a decision.... I should have told you.”

  “You think?” Speaking of childish.

  He narrowed his eyes as he studied her. “I knew you’d be upset, but I had hoped you wouldn’t be bitter.”

  She almost laughed.

  “You seem so...different.”

  She did laugh. “You know, Gerald, being stood up at the altar changes a person.”

  He seemed not to know what to say.

  Lily hadn’t thought she’d changed from the woman who’d agreed to marry the head of the math department at the university, but she realized she had. She was stronger, just as her brother had said. She’d gotten over the initial pain and realized that she’d survived one of the most awful things that could happen to a woman.

  Last night when she’d seen Gerald, all those old initial feelings had come back in a rush. Followed quickly by the hurt and betrayal.

  Since then, she’d let herself admit that she was angry. No, she was furious with him and all the more furious with herself because she’d actually thought about taking him back. She’d actually wanted that ordered life he’d promised.

  But standing here with him now, she knew that her night with Tag had changed all that. She’d never loved Gerald the way a woman should love a man she was about to marry. Tag had shown her what she’d been missing. Passion. And now that she’d experienced it, she could never go back to that lukewarm idea of love she’d shared with Gerald.

  Nor had Gerald loved her enough to be honest with her. Plus, as Tag had said, Gerald was a coward for not facing her on their wedding day.

  “Was there something else?” she asked her former fiancé, feeling the weight of the past lift from her shoulders.

  Gerald looked confused. He’d obviously come to her thinking all he had to do was tell her he was sorry and that he wanted her back. He seemed more than a little astonished that that hadn’t been the case.

  “I guess there is nothing else to say. I made the decision to help my sister. If it matters, you’re making that decision easier.”

  “I’m all about making your life easier, Gerald,” she said.

  “I didn’t mean to make you angry again,” he added quickly. “You know I tend to speak sometimes without considering how it affects others.”

  She started for the door.

  “I couldn’t help noticing when I was at your house that you were working on something,” he said. “Is it something I can help you with?”

  Lily turned to look at him. “That’s nice of you, but—”

  “I would like to help you. I’d feel better about the way I’m leaving things between us,” he said.

  She felt herself weaken. She’d been interrupted so much she hadn’t been able to work on decoding the data she’d taken off the thumb drive. If Tag was right and this information was important in Mia’s murder case... “I could use your help.”

  He looked pleased as well as curious as she dug in her bag and pulled out the papers she’d been working on. She set them on the desk, spreading them out as she explained what she’d come up with so far.

  “It would be easier if I had the original,” he said, glancing at the papers.

  “I don’t have it with me.”

  He nodded, pulled up a chair and, taking one of his pens from his pocket protector, began to check her work—just as he had done when he was her teacher.

  Lily watched him. She’d known how easily he could be distracted with a puzzle involving math. The mathematician in her still loved that about him.

  “Interesting,” he said as he bent over the letters.

  GUHA BKOPAR

  CAKNCA IKKNA

  BNWJG IKKJAU

  HSQ SWUJA

  YHAPA NWJZ

  NWU AIANU

  LWQH XNKSJ

  IEW ZQJYWJ

  YWH BNWJGHEJ

  HWNO HWJZANO

  DWNHWJ YWNZSAHH

  DQZ OWRWCA

  She’d decoded enough to see a pattern, but it hadn’t held up either because whoever had come up with the code had been in a hurry and made mistakes or because they’d gotten confused and sloppy.

  As she watched Gerald work, she saw t
hat she’d been right. There were two lists of names. It amazed her how quickly he filled in the names. She had to give him credit. Gerald really was a master at this sort of thing.

  “You were on the right track,” he said. “Just off a little.” Within minutes, he’d come up with two lists of names. “Is this all?” he asked, sounding disappointed as he handed the sheets to her and rose from the chair. “You’re sure there was nothing more on the original data?” He obviously would have much preferred some cryptic message. She would have, as well.

  She glanced at the names, one of them taking her breath away.

  Gerald didn’t seem to notice as he walked over and closed his suitcase with a finality that rang through the room. But when he turned toward her again, he said, “You and I are good together, Lily. You need me, now maybe more than you realize. I should leave you my cell phone number in case you change your—”

  “I won’t change my mind, Gerald,” she said as she shoved the papers into her shoulder bag with trembling fingers.

  “I see.” He had pulled out his business card as if about to write his new cell phone number on it, but now he stuck it back into his pocket. “I hope you don’t live to regret this, Lily. Clearly your behavior has taken a dangerous trajectory—if that cowboy is any indication.”

  She smiled. She’d never been one to hold grudges, always quick to forgive and forget. But she took some satisfaction in realizing that Gerald was jealous. If he only knew.... “Goodbye, Gerald.”

  He started to reach for her as if to kiss her cheek as he used to do when they parted, but she stepped back and walked out the door, leaving him standing there.

  She had a death grip on her shoulder bag and the papers inside, and couldn’t wait to show Tag. As she walked out, she heard Gerald’s cell phone ring.

  “Yes, I talked to her,” he said into the phone. “No, she won’t listen to reason.”

  Gerald had apparently involved one of his sisters, Lily thought as she rushed to her vehicle. No, she won’t listen to reason? She gritted her teeth, never more glad that she hadn’t weakened and gone back to the man.